The present embodiments relate to estimating a location of the source of a projectile, such as in the field of combat estimating the location of a shooter that has fired a projectile in a vicinity of, or toward, the estimating system.
In situations of violence including but not limited to military applications, typically a system is equipped with one or more weapons to allow retaliation in the direction of and against hostile fire. However, in complex combat situations there are often difficulties in determining the point of origin of the incoming projectiles so that this retaliation can be effected. Naturally, such a determination is important in quelling the hostility.
The prior art includes the use of an acoustical system to estimate the location of a projectile source such as the shooter of a bullet. In this approach, the acoustical system detects a shockwave that occurs due to the projectile passing in the vicinity of the acoustical system, and this shockwave is then associated with a projectile if the system also detects a subsequent sound if that sound is determined to be associated with the initial firing of the projectile, such as detecting the sound of a muzzle blast. In this system, however, the detection is only of supersonic projectiles, that is, where because the projectile is traveling faster than the speed of sound, the acoustical system is able to first detect the shockwave and thereafter to detect a corresponding muzzle blast. Indeed, if the acoustical system does not detect the subsequent muzzle blast, then the earlier-detected shockwave is disregarded by the system. In addition to its supersonic-detection-only operability, the accuracy of the results of the acoustical system in estimating the location of the origin of the projectile is sometimes unsatisfactory.
In view of the above, the prior art provides drawbacks and the preferred embodiments improve upon these drawbacks as demonstrated below.